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Penmann Welcomes James Roberts as Project Manager
Here at Penmann, we are delighted to welcome James Roberts to the team as our new Project Manager, bringing a strong combination of practical engineering knowledge, design experience and project management skills to the business.
James joins Penmann with experience managing turnkey engineering projects across a range of industries, including the food and beverage and pharmaceutical sectors. He is a fully time-served engineer and holds an HNC in Mechanical Engineering, giving him a strong technical foundation for his new role.
His appointment adds further experience to our projects team as we continue to deliver heating, cooling, ventilation and environmental control projects for industrial customers across the UK.
From the Workshop to Project Management
One of the strengths James brings to Penmann is his practical understanding of engineering. James began his career as a Machinist Apprentice with Helios Precision Engineering, progressing to Machinist and subsequently Junior Project Engineer during six years with the company.
His early career gave him extensive hands-on experience with manual milling machines, lathes, surface and cylindrical grinders and CNC milling equipment. This practical background developed alongside his engineering design skills, including experience with AutoCAD and taking projects from initial concepts and sketches through to completed engineering designs. Progressing into project engineering gave James responsibility for preparing, scheduling, monitoring and coordinating engineering projects, as well as working directly with customers to understand their requirements. It is this combination of practical and technical experience that he now brings to Penmann.
Experience Delivering Turnkey Engineering Projects
More recently, James worked as a Project Technician with FEG Global, where he developed further experience managing turnkey projects across multiple industries.
This included work within the food and beverage and pharmaceutical sectors, both important markets for Penmann. Delivering projects within these environments requires careful planning and communication, particularly where engineering work needs to be completed around production schedules, hygiene requirements and existing equipment and infrastructure. James’s experience of coordinating projects, managing timescales and communicating with customers, suppliers and colleagues will therefore be particularly valuable in his new role.
Supporting Penmann Projects from Design to Completion
As Project Manager, James will work closely with our customers and wider engineering team to coordinate projects from the initial planning and design stages through to installation and completion. His background means he can understand a project from several different perspectives.
He has worked on the machines manufacturing components, produced engineering designs using CAD, coordinated engineering teams and managed complete projects. That practical understanding will help James communicate effectively between customers, designers, engineers, contractors and suppliers, while keeping a close eye on the technical requirements and programme for each project.
Strengthening the Penmann Projects Team
Commenting on James’s appointment, Richard Metcalfe, Group Managing Director, said, “We’re really pleased to welcome James to Penmann. What stood out to us was the breadth of experience he has developed, from starting out as a machinist through to engineering design and managing turnkey projects.
“That practical engineering background is a real advantage in project management because James understands what is involved in turning a design into something that can actually be manufactured, installed and delivered successfully.
“He also already has experience working within industries such as food and beverage and pharmaceuticals, so he understands many of the environments in which our customers operate. I think he will be a very strong addition to our projects team.”
Welcome to Penmann, James
James brings technical knowledge, practical engineering experience and proven project management skills to Penmann, together with the communication and organisational skills required to keep complex engineering projects moving.
His desire to continue developing his knowledge of engineering and project management also fits well with our approach to developing expertise within the Penmann team.
We are delighted to have James on board and look forward to seeing him work with our new and existing customers as he develops his role within the business.